Autumn walk

Our silver maples are blazing yellow, our gutters cleaned from composted pine needles. Giant black walnuts are bombing us from above in the forest. On the ground, leaves and leaves, and dry, round acorns, biggest ever. A turtle nestled among boulders with a leafy blanket, shot by daughter with camera in hand. We were lost in the woods, but only for a while, then onto more hickory nuts and fungi-eaten twigs along the marked path. Woodpeckers far above and an empty wood duck nest box on a tree with a too short ladder below, and not even a squirrel to gather up all the nuts of the forest. Where were they? On the trail home, met a guy with a cell phone, talking loud so too many could hear.